Chang Po-yu, a vet in a Taiwanese zoo, waves from his hospital bed yesterday following seven hours of surgery to his other arm - reattached after being bitten off by a crocodile.

Mr Chang lost his left forearm as he reached through iron railings to pull out a tranquilliser dart from the 200kg (440lb) reptile on Wednesday.

He was rushed to hospital leaving zoo staff with the tricky task of a quick retrieval of his arm, above, from the sick but barely anaesthetised reptile.

The mission was accomplished after a police marksman shot two bullets at the neck of the Nile crocodile, causing it to drop the limb. Chen Po-tsun, an official at the Shaoshan Zoo, in Kaohsiung, about 200 miles south-west of Taipei, said: "The crocodile was unharmed as we didn't find any bullet holes on its hide. It probably was shocked and opened its mouth to let go of the limb."

Mr Chen was yesterday recovering from his ordeal. The 17-year-old crocodile, on the endangered species list, is one of a pair kept at the zoo.